Examples are presented of inter-hemispheric comparison of instrumental climate
and paleoclimate proxy records from the Americas for different temporal scales.
Despite a certain symmetry of seasonal precipitation patterns along the PEP 1
transect, decadal variability of winter precipitation shows different
characteristics in terms of amplitude and frequency in both the last 100 and
last 1000 years. Such differences in variability are also seen in a comparison
of time series of different El Niñ0/Southern Oscillation proxy records
from North and South America, however, these differences do not appear to
affect the spatial correlation with Pacific sea surface temperature patterns.
Local and regional differences in response to climate change are even more
pronounced for records with lower temporal resolution, and inter-hemispheric
synchroneity may or may not be indicative of the same forcing. This aspect is
illustrated in an inter-hemispheric comparison of the last 1000 years of
glacier variability, and of the full- and late-glacial lake level history.